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Case Study: Forensics Info Misappropriation

Challenge

Challenge

We were approached to help prevent a company’s former senior
executive from misappropriating confidential and proprietary information
for use with his new employer. Time was of the essence, as the former
company was concerned about the confidential information being put to
immediate use. They turned to experts
at Ricoh Forensics to perform a forensic analysis on the former
employee's laptop to see if any evidence of misappropriation existed.

With the first private computer forensics lab accredited by the
American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation
Board — as well 60 years of combined experience between our forensics
experts and licensed PI's — we were more than ready for the challenge.

Solution

Solution

Our forensic team performed a full investigation by acquiring a forensic image of the laptop.

A subsequent analysis showed that, on the eve of the former
executive's departure, he had searched for "data destruction" on the
internet. Afterward, he purchased and downloaded software specifically
designed to securely erase electronically stored information (ESI) from a
computer by overwriting it — rendering it unrecoverable.

The analysis also revealed use of an external hard drive, and an
attempt to delete files after a copy was made of them. The company asked
our forensic expert to perform additional analysis on the laptop and
attempt to recover any of the deleted and overwritten ESI. By looking at
hidden content stored as part of the laptop’s operating system backup
files, our experts located and recovered hidden versions of all of the
ESI. They were also able to trace the former employee's almost every move, catching him in the act of misappropriating information.

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Result

With our help, the company successfully demonstrated that the former employee had intentionally engaged in the destruction of evidence, and he was further banned from using any of the confidential and proprietary information he had attempted to misappropriate. Not only was the company's confidential information preserved, but they also received a substantial settlement in their favor.

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